“A lot of lawyers will make a lot of money for a long time having to clean up the unintended consequences from this measure,” said Eleanore Hunter, founder of the Positively Clackamas group that backs light rail projects in the county and opposes Measure 3-401.

Mary Olson, a Lake Oswego city councilor and Measure 3-401 supporter, agrees, with one caveat.

“We’ve heard they’ll be suing, but we’re not sure who they’d sue,” she said. “If it passes, the majority of people will have wanted it. Are they going to sue the people of Clackamas County?”

With four days before the polls close, no one’s sure. However, TriMet officials said this week that no matter how the vote goes, with construction on the $1.5 billion Portland-Milwaukie line well underway, someone from Clackamas will have to pay the agency for its portion of the project.

“They’re a committed partner and have a legally binding agreement to contribute to the project,” said Mary Fetsch, a TriMet spokeswoman.

The line runs from downtown Portland to North Clackamas County just across the border from the city of Milwaukie.

Measure supporters, or those who oppose spending Clackamas’ money on light rail, said county commissioners rammed funding proposals through without enough citizen input.

The vote results won’t affect the federal funds that TriMet has already received for the Portland-Milwaukie line. TriMet and its local government partners are matching the $750 million in federal money.

Opponents tried to block the county from selling bonds for the project. Oregon’s Supreme Court rejected the arguments earlier this month.

While the Clackamas County Business Alliance counts board members on both sides of the issue, it has taken no official stance on the vote.

“Some of our individual board members recognize that there’s this issue with light rail and that the process that originated a year ago has been problematic, but I’ve also heard a general sense that the measure has a lot of unintended consequences,” said Kim Parker, executive director of the Clackamas County Business Alliance.

“Although legal challenges lie ahead, I believe there are remedies to those legal challenges and other elements of the measure,” he said.

Such legal activity could address the measure’s limits on county emergency personnel. Opponents say the way the measure is written, emergency medical technicians wouldn’t be able to respond to situations either along the Portland-Milwaukie line or one of three other light-rail lines that operate within the county.

“This would strip them of their ability to do their jobs,” Hunter said.

Olson, who also actively opposed a proposed Portland-to-Lake Oswego streetcar, said Clackamas leaders circumvented the will of county citizens.

“Of course, we’re being characterized as anti-light rail,” she said. “I like to think of it as pro-voting. I’d rather see TriMet spend their money on a new fleet of buses and better bus service than funding this massive project.”

MEASURE 3-401

Clackamas County voters are deciding whether to require elections before county resources can go toward “the financing, design, construction or operation of any public rail transit system.” The term “county resources” in this case means “public funds, staff time, lobbying agreements, property interest, tangible or intangible county assets.”

Supporters of the measure filed more than 9,300 valid petition signatures to land the proposal on a special election ballot.

The measure came about when a group of Clackamas residents expressed disappointment that the Clackamas County Commission allocated $25 million toward the Portland-to-Milwaukie light rail project in 2010. The figure was eventually reduced to $19.9 million.